This And That In the News – I Fought The Law And The Law Won

"This And That In The News" is about articles in the news that have caught my eye and I want to comment about. There are four articles about trans-persons and the police that caught my attention today.

D.C. Police Officer To Appear In Court For Shooting At Transgender Women
WAMU
By: Armando Trull
September 2, 2011

D.C. Police Officer Kenneth Furr will appear in court Friday to answer charges that he shot at five people inside a car, wounding two transgendered women and their male friend during an early morning altercation last week. Activists call it the latest evidence of homophobia and transgender phobia within the police department.

Court documents quote witnesses as claiming that Furr, who was off duty and in plainclothes at the time, stood on the hood of the victims' car and shot through the windshield while yelling, 'I'm going to kill all of you."

This is one of the major fears of the trans-community, police brutality. I know a number of trans-persons that they were victims of discrimination or outright assault. A black trans-man that I know said that before he transition he (as a female) in a primarily white neighborhood where he lived, could walk down the street without being questioned by the police, but now as a black man, he is routinely stopped by the police and questioned. Another trans-man friend was stopped for a traffic violation and when the officer saw that the gender on his driver license didn’t match the way he gender he was presenting as, the officer dragged him out of the car and threw him on the hood of the car, all the while the officer was called him by derogatory names. He was still binding (wrapping tight bandage or elastic material around the chest to hide their breasts) and officer made it a point to feel there to see if he had any hidden weapons.

Then in Canada…

Transgender woman sues city for false arrest
JAMES TURNER
METRO WINNIPEG
Published: September 01, 2011

A transgender woman who claims police officers yanked her from her car at gunpoint and mocked her because of her sexual orientation is suing the City of Winnipeg for allegedly breaching her rights against unlawful and unjustified detention.
[…]
Cox, who is in her 30s, says she was alone and out for a drive on the early morning of June 14 and pulled into the St. James Civic Centre’s parking lot to have a cigarette.

Shortly after, the police helicopter appeared directly overhead, followed by squad cars that boxed her vehicle in.

She alleges officers with guns drawn forced her out of the car and to the ground before being kneed in the back, roughly handcuffed and placed in the back of a police car.

Her vehicle was searched and officers mistakenly believed another person was inside, Cox states.

While in the police car, she “could hear some officers talking in chuckling voices saying ‘he’s a tranny,’” the lawsuit states.

Cox claims she was released shortly after, offered an apology and told officers were investigating a possible break in nearby.

OK, maybe there was a burglary in the area, but that in no way justifies the mockery that she had to endure. There is no reason why the officers did not behave in a professional manor.

The next article is about the police treatment of a trans-woman in Florida…

Sensitivity Training - Wilton Manors Police Department
South Florida Gay News
Written by Victoria Michaels
Tuesday, 16 August 2011

A new report released in July found violence against transgender individuals is on the rise nationally. Certain segments of the population were disproportionately effected in 2010 and the incident of violence against LGBT individuals rose 13 percent according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP).
[…]
Back in 2008, shortly after I had won the Miss Florida Pageant I was on my way to work and was pulled over by a Wilton Manors Police Officer. When he approached the window of my vehicle he seemed very friendly and referred to me as "Miss." After engaging in some friendly conversation he asked me to sit tight as he would run my drivers license through the system and suggested if I had a clean driving record he would issue me a simple traffic warning.

When the officer returned to my vehicle I was taken by surprise as his demeanor had completely changed and he began referring to me as "Mister" several times. I explained to him that I was a transgender female and he responded, "But you were born a man weren't you?" He added, "So you are still a man!" I was in tears because I felt humiliated. I asked him why he was disrespecting me, but he continued to be rude and hateful. He ended the conversation by once again referring to me as mister and issuing me a traffic citation.
[…]
To my shock and disappointment in September 2010 Wilton Manors Chief of Police Richard Perez was suspended 30 days without pay for sending out racist emails and was ordered to attend "racial and cultural sensitivity training." Perez was eventually forced to resign or be fired.

In July 2011 Sgt. Peter Bigelsen resigned after being accused of making "hateful" comments about blacks and Hispanics. It seems obvious that the "sensitive training" agreement that was signed in 2008 was perhaps a hoax to silence me from bringing my incident to the media.

They can have “sensitivity training” up to their ears, but if the administration does not enforce the policies or does not create a culture of respect then all that training is meaningless.

The last news article is about a trans-woman who was beaten with a baseball cap…

Police unsure if attack on transgender woman a bias crime

Seattle Times
By Christine Clarridge
August 30, 2011

Police are continuing to investigate an attack against a 21-year-old transgender woman who was beaten with a baseball bat in Ballard but have stopped short of labeling the assault as a bias crime

"We just don't have enough information at this time to know if this is a quote-unquote hate crime," said Seattle Police Department spokesman Mark Jamieson.

"Just because the victim is a transgendered person does not necessarily mean it was a bias crime," Jamieson said.

According to police, the victim reported that she had been crossing the road at 28th Avenue Northwest and Northwest 67th Street on Aug. 16, headed toward her home, when a woman with a baseball bat, and a man, started following the victim.

The woman with the bat approached the victim, according to a police report taken four days later, and said, "I don't want to see you around the skate bowl anymore." The Ballard Commons Park, at 5701 22nd Avenue Northwest, has a skate bowl.

The bat-wielding woman then struck the victim on the side of her head with the bat, the victim told police.

It seems to me that this was a hate crime because the attacker was transphobic, she worried about a trans-person hanging around the park. Her bias against trans-people was what motivated her to try to bash in the head of the trans-woman.

I am always aware of the possibility that someone might become violent because I am transgender. I am always cognizant of my surroundings, I imagine that women are also more aware of their surrounds, but I think it is even more so for trans-women. When I was in an accident on the Maine Turnpike a couple of years back, the accident wasn’t on my mind; it was how was the state trooper going to react to me being trans. As usual, I had nothing to worry about, he treated me in a professional manor and with respect. Maybe that is the difference between a Blue state and a Red state.